A two-thirds majority will be needed to permanently remove her from office, which would leave Temer at the helm until her term ends in late 2018.
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She singled out Temer as being behind part of the “conspiracy” and noted that the lawmaker who launched the impeachment process, House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, faces corruption charges. The April 9 poll also found that 58 percent of Brazilians would want him impeached if he takes over for Rousseff. The measure now goes to the Senate.
Rousseff is accused of manipulating budget figures to make it appear the country’s economy was doing better than it really was.
Ms Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing, and claims her predecessors have used similar accounting techniques in the past.
“This is a attempt to have an indirect presidential election by a group of people who would otherwise never be elected”, she said, denouncing the impeachment process as a “coup”.
“They are torturing my dreams and my rights but they can not hope to see me off, because democracy is always on the right side of history”, she said in the speech delivered live on television, . “I have energy, strength and courage to show, in spite of my feeling of sadness; I’m won’t become dejected, I will continue fighting”.
“I am the victim of a process based on flagrant injustice and legal and political fraud, and at the same time a coup”.
Claudio Couto, professor of political science at Fundação Getulio Vargas, said that Sunday’s loss dramatically weakened Rousseff’s ability to strike political bargains and shore up support for her government.
The impeachment has deeply divided Brazilians, tens of thousands of whom demonstrated in front of Congress and in cities nationwide during the vote. The allegations pale in comparison to the massive corruption scandals in which many of her political opponents are embroiled and also do not implicate her in any personal enrichment schemes or financial impropriety.
As president, Temer would inherit a long list of problems.
Fitch, which has a negative outlook on Brazil’s ‘BB+’ sovereign rating, said it would focus on a new leader’s attitude to the corruption probe and efforts to stem the steep rise in government debt.
The crisis has paralyzed the government as it struggles to revive the economy from its worst recession in decades, copes with an outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus and scrambles to prepare to host the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
With the impeachment documents handed over from the lower house to the Senate on Monday, Rousseff’s fight for survival will now focus on winning support in that legislative body, where an initial vote on impeachment is expected in about two weeks.
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Rousseff said she was disappointed at the fact that the actual accusation was not discussed during the entire session in the chamber of deputies. According to news reports, 45 of the 81 senators have indicated they intend to vote in favor of an impeachment trial.
